A few minutes prior...

Tally groaned from her place on the floor. Her arms were growing sore from holding the position she was forced into. On her knees, arms up, holding a rope loosely around her neck, head forward with her gaze to the floor though her left eye was covered. Each and every action of hers was controlled by the work done by Nicte's lackey who knelt at her side, muttering cursed tones into her ear.

Paralyzed, she couldn't speak or move unless willed by the spree agent which meant at Nicte's command. This was what she woke to almost thirty minutes ago. Finishing her conversation with the General was instantly forgotten and replaced with fear and confusion as she struggled to realize what was happening. She fought against the hold the agent had on her so intently that she barely heard anything Nicte said until she felt her hand on the back of her head. Nicte's nails against her scalp brought Tally's attention back. She could only see the grey floor in front of her and only through her right eye.

"...Shall I show you your pet, Sarah? Do you want to see my handy work? It is a shame, she was so pretty too. You surely remember those chocolatey brown eyes of hers? She is more dedicated to you than I thought, even after everything. Look where it got her." Nicte's voice sent a shiver down her spine, made only more horrifying by the fact that it echoed back in a similar yet distorted voice. With excessive force, Nicte yanked her head so roughly Tally couldn't help but groan loudly in pain.

This was the first she got to see of the room they were in. It was small with gray floors and off ẁhite walls that were bare of any decorations. There was no furniture. It was only her, Nicte, and the spree agent beside her. The other voice she had heard parroting Nicte's speech emanated from the screen on the wall before her. It was split in two, each side showing a different scene.

The images on the left caught her eye first, and she couldn't look away as the gruesome sight burned into her memory.

Her brain was unwilling to reconcile what she was seeing. Much of the screen was dark save for a small section of the middle where a single light bulb flickered.

A figure bearing a striking resemblance to Nicte stood grinning wildly, behind Tally herself, just as she assumed was their positioning now, only it so obviously wasn't a mirrored image of them. Staring back at her was a bloodied and bruised version of herself, chained to the floor, taut rope around her neck, with a blank expression on her face.

For a split second, she wondered if that's what she looked like at this moment. The more she looked though, the more glaring the differences between what she knew as her reality and what appeared on the screen became. For one, the spree agent she felt beside her wasn't there. She next noticed the clothes. Stained still with dirt and blood, and ripped in familiar places, she knew Nicte had forced her to change out of that same outfit before they left the cabin in the woods.

Her eyes traced over her double's face and body, noting that the gruesome injuries she saw were more severe than the pain she felt. The pain was still severe and vaguely in the same places, but the rope she held was not choking her, and she certainly still had both of her eyes.

On top of it all, when she focused her sight on the two of them, she could start to see the edges of the magic that disguised them. Under the work, she recognized the two figures as the spree agents that had beaten her at the cabin while Nicte was away.

It was telling that she couldn't concentrate hard enough to see through the ruse for longer than a few seconds. Their doubles had to be someplace far away to throw off the army's rescue attempts. When she relaxed her sight, the blurry aura that surrounded the figures faded away and they once again appeared to embody her and Nicte's physical appearances to the letter.

Dread consumed her, this had to be part of the plan Nicte was touting so confidently earlier, but she didn't have enough of the picture yet to realize the full scope.

Her eyes darted to the other side of the screen. Several people were seated around a small table. They were all watching a small screen, the same image that was projected on the left of her wall was displayed on it. The five people were all easily identifiable as Raelle, Abigail, Anacostia, Petra Belleweather, and in the center, General Alder. Her sisters were being escorted away by Anacostia as she watched, while Petra and Alder remained, unmoving.

Nicte's voice startled her when she spoke again from behind her. Tally could do nothing but watch the screens in front of her and watch the same words leave through the lips of the imposter who still stood menacingly behind Tally's own double figure. "You should have come to get her yourself, Sarah, that would have been your only chance to see her alive again."

Nicte leaned down again and whispered to her, the figures also mimicking the movement.

"If you so much as think about trying to communicate with Sarah, I will not stop at removing just her. You can say goodbye to Raelle, to the Belleweather girl, Anacostia, and anyone else you know and love. Do you understand, Red?"

Tally couldn't respond, instead, she kept her eye on her double. Her look-alike blinked slowly, eye glazed over, staring blankly ahead. Any emotion was missing from her expression. "This must be uncomfortable. Let me take this." Nicte took the loose rope out of Tally's hands and tossed it flippantly across the room. The doubles did the same.

Tally had heard of pushing work like this, but what Nicte and her agent were doing was a form of puppetry that went beyond speech and included actions as well. She couldn't imagine how much energy it took to do such work.

Contemplating if it would make them weak enough for her to free herself ended with yet another distraction. A voice in her head.

"It is going to be okay. We will get you out of there and we will fix you. I promise. I promise you, Tally. Open and close your left hand if you can hear me." Tally heard Alder's voice clearly in her head, she sounded desperate. It was beyond alarming to hear her speak like that, and to her of all people. Though she couldn't see her face clearly, she wouldn't have guessed from her posture that she was anything but cool, calm, and collected.

"Do it. Do as she asked. Close your left hand." The agent growled, Tally could feel her hot breath on her cheek.

She felt violated by the stranger in her mind who heard Alder's voice through her. Their connection was made out of necessity by Alder this time but it was such an intimate thing, no one else should have access to this. If only the general would have heeded her warning and severed their connection when she had the chance.

A few stray tears broke away from her eyes as she tried to refuse but her body was still unresponsive. Even though she fought against it, she felt the fingertips of her left hand contact her palm. As she did, she watched her double on the screens make the same motion.

Tally focused on the righthand view. Alder's shoulders flexed as she sat up just a little, and her head dipped. It looked like she was relieved, but all Tally felt was horror as this situation only continued to worsen before her eyes.

It was only a few moments later that a commotion broke out and the screen on the left became distorted and difficult to watch. It was clear the so-called rescue team was now fighting who they thought was Nicte.

"Any minute now." Nicte nodded, clearly satisfied with her work. She turned and knelt in front of Tally. "This has been fun hasn't it?"

Tally couldn't speak. The agent still controlled her, preventing any form of retaliation.

"Now you get to sit back and relax and watch the show." She patted Tally on the head demeaningly.

As the fight came to an end, Nicte removed the left screen altogether, leaving them to focus on the images of Alder and Petra.

Tally's heart picked up again. The answer still evaded her. There was no one else in the room but Petra, Alder, and...Alder's biddies. As a few of Alder's biddies came into view, she only grew more confident in her answer. It was so obvious. How hadn't she seen it before?

"You like like you've realized something, Red." Nicte sneered. "Too bad you won't be able to warn her. You are smart, but not smart enough, and neither are they. They knew there was a traitor and so did you. Even knowing that, they couldn't figure it out. I expected more from them honestly. Oh well." She shrugged. "All that's left to do is wait." With that, Nicte left her alone with the agent, though the agent now stood against the wall.

After a short while of her stuck in her thoughts, a different agent came in carrying two chairs. They relocated Tally along with her restraints into the chair, while the new agent sat across from her.

Tally could feel the new agent worm her way into her head, taking the pace of the first. After about ten minutes of swapping over, the first agent left her alone with the second. It was a fresh pain in her head every time they switched out, and they did this at least three more times, all the while she watched helplessly as Alder left the warding circle, paced around her office, and awaited the return of the imposters. Dread overwhelmed her and there was nothing she could do but keep watching so there would at least be a witness to Nicte's crimes.

Nothing could compare to the comfortable familiarity of her office chair. She breathed in the sweet scent of her antique furniture mixed with the cool refreshing breeze that flowed through the open window. It was so good to be back where she belonged.

Within half an hour of the news, she sent the two cadets out to rendezvous with the rescue team. After a quick discussion with Petra and Izadora, they decided the warding circle served its purpose and she along with her biddies should be safe to go outside again.

Although the worst part of this whole endeavor should be behind them by now, she knew there was much unpleasantness yet to wade through.

It had been nearly two hours and she still didn't have the slightest idea of what to say first. It should be as easy as debriefing any soldier after a mission. But this wasn't any mission and it wasn't any soldier.

Nothing about this was normal.

They would likely be back any minute now, and she feared she'd just have to feel out the moment and hope her experience would support her as it always had.

Her biddies were no use in this either. Not for their lack of frying, but Jamie and April refused to speak to one another on the issue, and the others were far less vocal. Tally's erratic behavior across their encounters had them split on where the cadet's loyalties lay. She believed that last interaction to be the most genuine, but she held that opinion close, not trying to incite another argument.

There was a knock at the door. She inhaled the fresh air once more, steeling herself for this before shutting the window. "Enter."

It was Anacostia.

She didn't need to say it. There was no other reason for her being at her office. "They're back."

"Good. Let us greet them. I assume Ta-Craven has been repaired?"

"Repaired? "Anacostia scoffed. " She's not a machine, mother, and no. She refused treatment. She wouldn't let Collar anywhere near her, so they reported anyway. I suppose we'll see momentarily. Shall we?"

Her gut wrenched. She was not sure she was prepared to see Tally in that state of agony. She had hoped Tally would be in one piece and relatively pain-free when she got to see her. This was bad.

Anacostia held the door open for her to follow. She did, albeit unwillingly. Her feet felt like lead weighing her to the ground.

Just as things were becoming unbearable to watch, Nicte waltzed back in. "Are you excited? This is just the beginning of the end." With a wave, the spree agent left the room, and suddenly Tally's entire being felt lighter. A crushing compression had been removed from her whole body and she could breathe again.

"You won't get away with this." She gasped.

Nicte chuckled as she did. "I know you want to believe that, Red, but it just isn't looking good for you."

"Alder will know that isn't me, and she sure as hell will know that isn't you." Tally snarled eliciting a simple raise of her eyebrow from Nicte.

"Is that so?" Nicte sat across from her and leaned closer. "Tell me, who do you think she will recognize first?"

"You."

The older woman's smirk widened into a wicked smile and her eyes glinted dangerously. "I'm counting on it. Her sweet beloved Tally has been tortured by that big bad lady she'll have locked up in her dungeon. There would be no questioning any strange behavior of yours. She'll let down her guard, let you get close, then you and my biddy puppet will kill her when she least expects it." She laughed to herself. "Yes, that is delicious. The betrayal. Oh, I can't wait to see it in her eyes. Hopefully, it all goes according to plan, which so far, it is."

Tally scoffed. It sounded ridiculous, but just ridiculous enough to work. If Nicte she was right about Alder being that concerned about her. She doubted it, but if she had a biddy on the inside relaying information, who knows what insight she had into Alder's mind and true feelings. No, that wasn't right, and it certainly didn't do her any good to think about. The only thing that made her feel any semblance of better was denying it. "No, you're wrong. Your plan hinges on feelings from her that aren't there and don't exist. Even if your source gave you that information, then she's wrong."

"Oh Tally, Tally, Tally. I can't wait to prove you wrong, though, I do admit I don't want you to suffer because of her."

Tally's eyes caught the screen as Alder stepped outside onto the steps. Before her were a few people she didn't recognize, Petra was there, and standing held down in chains was Nicte's double with a muzzle clamped over her mouth. Off to the side was her own double being supported by Abigail, still looking worse for wear, though it appeared she'd gotten a new bandage over her eye at least. Too bad she couldn't see Alder's face to see her expression.

Nicte turned around, following her gaze. "Ah, and it begins."

"As the founder of an international terrorist organization, known as The Spree, responsible for the death and injury of thousands, as well as acts of treason against this great nation, I hereby sentence Nicte Batan to death." Alder's voice was clear as day even after being relayed through Nicte's link with the traitor.

Of course, she shouldn't have expected anything else from Alder after everything. There was no way Nicte would be allowed to live as one of the only people who knew the truth of Alder's treachery.

"Don't look away, Red. This is Sarah. It's who she is." She rounded the chair Tally was bound to. "There will be no trial, no hearing, no defense. It will be murder. She would have gotten away with it if she had been smarter." Nicte leaned in closer "Good thing she wasn't. I suppose I have you to thank for that. If you didn't hold her affection, she would have seen through this ruse." Tally watched in horror. Nicte's double was dragged away in chains while her own was invited to follow Alder herself. Still, under Nicte's power, she was unable to look away.

"What's your plan? To keep me awake until I die? "Tally drawled sleepily.

"Just until she does." Nicte sounded more bored than tired.

Her blinks became slower, she was actually very tired, and having all of the different agents along with Nicte forcing themselves into her head didn't help. "And if I fall asleep? What then?"

Nicte pretended to think. "Then like I said, your friends will die."